What had initially woke Rick up was the feeling you get when you fall. Even as a man that is constantly feeling that exact feeling as he travels through space on a daily basis, it was still a huge wake up call when you fall in your sleep. It could possibly mean that he was under attack, or he was falling of a ledge. Who knows with the kind of life Rick leads? The falling feeling caused Rick to latch on to something in order to save himself. The thing he grabbed onto was oddly already on top of him. Kind of on top of him. He expected whatever that thing was to stop his fall, but he ended up just pulling it down with him.
Rick groaned as his back hit the floor, the thing on top of him groaning in pain as well. Well, whatever it was, it's alive. Maybe he got so drunk last night that he got a one night stan? It had collapsed on his chest, so it's fall was cushioned. Good for them. Rick squinted at the foggy figure above him. He was met with a mop of brown curly hair and he instantly knew who it was. Morty. Holy shit. Holy shit! He's in Morty's room! He was sleeping on his bed! In his room! On his bed! Rick looked around frantically.
Memories of last night were flooding back into his mind. No... no, oh no, oh no... nonononono!
"Geez, R-Rick... ugh." Morty groaned, pushing himself up off of Rick. He glared at his alarm clock. "It's... fricken... it's Saturday morning, 5:36am, too early for this shit..." He grumbled, climbing back up into his bed, leaving enough room for Rick to climb back in as well.
However, Rick had other plans. He shot up so quickly he almost fell all over again from the force of it. He shook his head, starting to pace around the room, pulling at his blue hair in complete despair and panic. "I-I-I-I'm so sorry Morty, I-I don't know what I was thinking last night- fuck— fucking— shitfuck— son of a bitch! What was I thinking?!" Rick profusely started to apologize.
"Rick, Rick... ch-chill." Morty says, patting the empty part of the bed. But Rick didn't hear him. He was still mumbling apologize and pacing around the room. Morty just watched him for a minute, slowly getting more and more frustrated. "RICK!" he shouted, demanding Rick to look at him. But the man still didn't seem to hear him. Morty was too tired for his bullshit right now.
He growled and got back out of bed and reached out for Rick. He grabbed his left shoulder and yanked him back. The physical contact seemed to finally snap the old man back to reality, and he started at the hand Morty had placed on his shoulder. After what he did to him, Rick couldn't understand why on Earth Morty was okay with touching him. Shouldn't Morty hate him? Shouldn't he be cowering away? Shouldn't Morty he running to tell his parents, or sobbing, or calling him a disgusting fuck?
"Rick." Morty said sternly, wishing Rick would look him in the eye. "I-It's too early for your shit right now. J-just... come back to bed. Y-you're like a really annoying alarm clock that w-won't let me hit the snooze button."
Rick looked at him, swallowing the lump that was forming in his throat. "W-what..?"
"Come. Back. To. Bed." Morty tugged on his arm insistantly, trying to get Rick to move back over to his bed. Rick stayed planted in place, just completely and utterly confused. "Rick, just- if it helps we can talk about it. But after that, you have to come back to bed." His voice was still raspy from sleep, and his eyes half-lidded and tired looking.
"Morty..." Rick's voice actually breaks on the last syllable, his hands clenching so tightly that his knuckles were turning white. "I-I'm so sorry..."
Morty sighed. "R-Rick, there's nothing to be sorry for. It's fine. It's okay. I promise. If I wasn't okay with this, do you really think I'd want you to just come back to bed?" The teen was looking up at him with a tired gaze.
Rick took a step back, not believing him for a second. He knows Morty. Always eager to please. Always trying to help. Always being the bigger person, and trying to make Rick happy. Morty took a step forward, tugging slightly on his shirt. "Please, R-Rick. I'm fine." Morty yawned. "Jus' cooooommmoooon. I'm tired."
How could Rick say no to that? Morty was being unbelievablely cute right now, even though Rick's mind was still supplying hundreds of self-loathing thoughts. He couldn't say no, even though he hated himself in this very moment. How could he let this happen? How could he do this to Morty? Rick let Morty guide him back to the bed. He pulled the blanket over both of them and clung to Rick's side. Rick tensed. This didn't feel right. He loves Morty, of course, and he really wants this. He really fucking wants this. But it felt so wrong. It just happened so quickly, and it was because Rick was being stupid. And he didn't even know how Morty felt about this.
"Morty... h-how are you okay with this?" Rick starts, feeling more and more like a bag of shit with each word. "I-I... I'm your Grandpa... I-I... touched you... you should be disgusted with me..."
Morty sighed again, laying his head on Rick's chest and clutching his wife beater in his hands. "Do... d-do you want me to be disgusted with you?" Rick didn't respond, so shocked by the question. Morty actually kind of expected that kind of response, and continued with his speech. "Because I don't f-feel disgusted. I-It's nice. I've..." He could feel his cheeks heating up. "I've wanted this for a while. A-and it doesn't matter that you're my Grandpa. O-only people with planetary mind sets have a problem with I-incest. A-and I guess... this... whatever we have now... kind of just— it makes sense."
Rick actually snorted. "H-how the hell does any of this make sense?"
Morty sat up suddenly, looking down at Rick with that 'really? Are you really that stupid?' face he gave aliens on a few occasions, when they were being particularly stupid. "Y-you're such and emotionally stunted old man. I'm not the only one who can sense all of the sexual tension adventuring has put between us. I-I know you feel it too. It's obvious."
Rick flushed suddenly, not expecting Morty to be so blunt about it. He must have been so focused on hiding his own feelings that he hadn't even noticed Morty going though practically the same thing. "N-Now, w-will you just go the fuck to sleep?" The teen pleaded.
"M-Morty, nothing about this is okay." Rick says, sadness lacing his tone.
"I know, Rick." Morty sighed. "I-I know it's not okay. But I don't care. I-If—if it makes us both happy, why should it even matter? Sure, maybe society isn't okay with this, but w-why the fuck should we care about what Earth thinks if w-we don't even spent most of our time on this shitty planet?"
"I didn't..." Rick trailed off momentarily, shaking his head. Morty waited patently for him to continue. "H-how do you feel about this, Morty? H-how do you feel about all of this?" He knew Morty gave a little speech about being happy, and how it doesn't matter if their related. But he needed Morty to verbalize his thoughts in greater detail for him to actually accept it. He needed to hear Morty say he liked him back for him to be sure that the kid was okay with all of this. If he got one hint that this wasn't doing it for Morty- one hint that this made him uncomfortable in anyway, he'd back off completely. "A-and don't... don't lie just to make me h-happy. I want honesty."
Morty sat up this time, taking a deep breath as he collected his thoughts. He was about to go into storytelling mode from what Rick could tell. "Well... I've liked you for m-maybe a year now. Like... in the way you shouldn't like your Grandfather. A-and at first I thought... at first I hated myself for feeling that way. I though I was disgusting, and that there was something wrong with me. But, you know... A-as we traveled more on adventures, I r-realized that it turned out to be a pretty— a normal thing on most planets. It's just Earth... and humans in general that are fucking stupid. A-and I started to notice that... that sometimes you'd get red whenever I'd say something funny, or-or nice. A-and that one time when we got stuck in a small box together, y-you stuttered more than usual, a-and tried not to look at me... and—and you always seem to light up when I enter a room no matter how badly you try to cover it up. So, I kind of had a feeling that you liked me the way I like you, b-but I never said anything. I-I thought you'd hate me if I told you how I felt... because, while the though of incest doesn't bother me, there was a possibility that it would bother you, and it would have destroyed any semblance of friendship we'd had before... but last night, you fucking— you made the first move... a-and it was amazing. I-I'm kind of glad we didn't get very far, though... because you were pretty drunk and you probably weren't thinking very clearly. A-and I'm not sure I'm ready to advance that f-far in the relationship yet."
Suddenly Morty became very flustered once realized what he'd said in his last sentence. "I-I-I mean! N-N-Not that we're in a r-r-re-re-relationship or anything! I-I-If you—if you want to, then that would be—uh... but if you don't want to, that—that's okay too! UhHh..." Morty awkwardly averted his eyes, rubbing the back of his head as embarrassment washed over him. He scooted away from Rick slightly, his cheeks flushing a rosey red.
It was obvious that the boy's anxiety was getting the best of him at the moment. Morty could go from super confident, to riddled with anxiety within seconds. Sometimes it was hard to watch, and then other times it was adorable. Right now it was hard to watch, because it was obvious that Morty had beat himself up over this before, just as Rick has many many times before. "H-Hey, it's... it's okay." Rick said. He reached out to touch him, but stopped half way. He was afraid to touch him. It was too... too soon. The action, even if it could be seen as platonic on a normal day, was too intimate of an action at this moment. "We'll... we'll see about that one, Mort."
Of course Rick wanted a relationship. He wasn't just out to fuck the kid. He loved him. But it's still... everything was moving way too fast. "W-we... we might have to hold off on the whole... relationship thing. I mean-"
"Y-Yeah, yeah, I get it." Morty says, still avoiding his eyes and blushing profusely. "It's a lot to take in... a-and I'm your Grandson, so I can understand how this could be stressful. Y-you know... I just realized that I fricken' told you I really like you, a-and I don't even know how you feel. Fuck. This is really awkward, isn't it? I-If you don't feel the same, please just say so, so that I can stop making a fool out of myself. W-we can forget all about this if you want. W-we'll use the memory gun, so we can actually forget if you want-"
"Morty." Rick interrupted. It's like the roles reversed. The kid was starting to ramble again, as he did sometimes, which meant that he was increasingly becoming more nevrvous. It was at this moment that Rick realized that it was time to fess up on his feelings. It's now or never. "I-I..." Shit. Rick didn't know how to continue. How was this still so hard for him to do? It was already out and about. Everyone's being honest. Even Morty. So why was this still so fucking hard for him? 'Do it, you motherfucker.' Rick growled to himself within his own mind. "I... like you too. B-But... t-this is just so... so new. I-I didn't expect to wake up one morning like... this." He gestured between them.
"Neither did I..." Morty whispered. "But it happened, so... what do we do now?"
Rick thought for a moment before shyly looking down at the ground. "W-well, we could, you know, go out, or something? Later? Figure it out some." God, he sounded like a pathetic teenager asking his crush out on a date.
If it was even possible, Morty somehow seemed to flush even more. Morty realized after a moment too late that he was supposed to respond. "U-Uh, yes! Of course! But uh... right now, can we please just... go back to sleep? I'm... I'm still tired."
Rick looked back up at his flustered Grandson, once again noticing his tired gaze. Faint bags under his eyes, disheveled hair, and sagging posture. Even through the anxiety riddled conversation, the teen was still tired enough to want to go back to sleep. And Rick had a hangover, so he wanted to go back to sleep as well. And it totally wasn't because he wanted to hold Morty. "Sure, kid... sounds good to me."
Morty smiled at him, causing Rick to get butterflies in his stomach. The teen scooted up closer to Rick and laid back down on his chest, his grandfathers warmth enveloping him. Rick wrapped an arm around him carefully, still slightly afraid to actually touch him. Earlier this had felt so wrong, but now it was starting to feel... good. Like it was slowly but surely becoming right. This could work. But...
"W-what if your parents ever caught us?" Rick suddenly wondered aloud. He felt Morty shrug.
"I dunno, Rick. Switch dimensions? Move to space?" The teen suggested with more ease than Rick expected. "It sounds dramatic, but... I wouldn't mind. They aren't even my o-original family."
"Y-you sure, Morty?" Rick asks, concern filling him. "I mean-"
"They're not gonna find out anyway." Morty states, sounding sure about it. "Y-you're too smart to let that happen."
It took Rick a moment, but he suddenly remembered that he could now complement Morty, and it'd be fine, because if it turned into flirting, at least they were both alread on the same page. "Don't sell yourself short, kiddo, you're pretty damn smart, too, you know."
"You think so, Rick?" He giggled, scooting up a little closer to the old man. "I mean, I'm not the brightest tool in the shed."
"Y-yeah, but your not even close to being the dullest." Rick let the words come out with ease. It felt so good to not have to hold himself back. "Y-you're at least second place I-in the- you're the second sharpest tool."
"Let me guess, you're first place- the sharpest tool?" Morty giggles again.
"Duh."